The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. The EEOC is the federal agency to call if your clients are experiencing discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Most employers with at least 15 employees are covered by EEOC laws (20 employees in age discrimination cases). Most labor unions and employment agencies are also covered.

The laws apply to all types of work situations, including hiring, firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages, and benefits. Impacted individuals may now file and manage a complaint through an online portal.

On November 2, 2017, the EEOC launched the EEOC Public Portal to provide online access to individuals experiencing possible employment discrimination. Each year the EEOC receives over 300,000 inquiries over the phone, so a move to the digital era will allow them to respond quickly to inquiries.

The new system enables individuals to digitally sign and file a charge prepared by the EEOC on their behalf. According to the press release from the EEOC, “once an individual files a charge, he or she can use the EEOC Public Portal to provide and update contact information, agree to mediate the charge, upload documents to his or her charge file, receive documents and messages related to the charge from the agency and check on the status of his or her charge.” An EEOC investigation can take anywhere between 8 weeks to 10 months.

EEOC information should be included in your job readiness curriculum so clients know their rights as workers and know where to turn to in order to seek justice if their rights are violated.

There are even more serious implications for descriptions of ‘political’ or ‘economic’ motivations and the image projected by countries of origin like Eritrea and Burma.

I wish I could provide more insightful analysis, but the following quotes do a better job.

“Some arrivals are described as expats; others as immigrants; and some simply as migrants. It depends on social class, country of origin and economic status.” (The Guardian)

Expats.

“We don’t call middle-class Europeans who take regular holidays abroad ‘EasyJet people,’ or the super-rich of Monaco ‘yacht people….It strikes me as a way, intentional or not, of avoiding discussing the reasons why refugees from Burma, for instance, take those boats and why other countries are reluctant to give them asylum.” (Daniel Trilling, editor of the New Humanist in the Washington Post)

How can we make a positive contribution to the terminology used to talk about our clients?

Click here for additional ideas from an Irish inter-faith organization about terminology that conveys more positive nuances.